Effects Of High Altitude On The Human Body

Hypoxia is one of the major problems associated with this increase in altitude. This is due to the fact that the partial pressure of oxygen decreases proportionately with increases in altitude. Carbon dioxide that is continually excreted from the pulmonary blood to the alveoli along with water vaporizing in the inspired air from the respiratory surfaces dilute the oxygen in the alveoli which cause the oxygen concentration to decrease.

Oxygen is used for cell respiration which is created and found in the mitochondria. The mitochondria need oxygen to make glucose for the body cells and to create carbon dioxide. Glucose is used in the liver to regulate the body’s sugar levels. Carbon dioxide is then added to water and then to energy for cell respiration and for the body systems and organs to be able to work.

Cells depend on the oxygen and nutrients supplied by the blood to do their various jobs-from the heart muscle cells that keep your heart pumping to the brains cells that keep you thinking and coordinating your countless activities.

Before reading this book, I had already been aware of the countless dangers of Mt. Everest. Last summer I read a book about Mt. Everest much like this one in the state that both were spoken through personal accounts, and both used constant detail to express the horrible and painful experiences that both authors had to go through. This prior knowledge helped better my understanding of this book because I was aware of the common occurrences that can take place while climbing Mt. Everest, and the gruesome circumstances that go with it. During the eighth chapter, readers become aware of a horrible condition that a character is dealing with. “By the time he arrived at the tents late that afternoon Ngawang was delirious, stumbling like a drunk, and coughing up pink, blood-laced froth” (Krakauer 113).

The altitude that this stage could happen in is between 5000 to 11400 ft.(3) "The body generally has the ability to stave off further effects of hypoxia by increasing the rate and depth of ventilation and cardiac output ".(1) The respiration rate, blood pressure, and the heart rate can rise up in this stage.(2) the arterial oxygen saturations in this stage is between 80 and 90 percent.(1)

Nevertheless, Krakauer hoped to conserve what little he had and asked his friend, Andy Harris, to turn his regulator down. Unfortunately, Krakauer soon realized that “Harris, in his hypoxically impaired state, had mistakenly cranked the valve open to full flow, draining the tank.” (Krakauer) With the declining amount of oxygen reaching the brain, climbers have trouble performing even the easiest tasks. Harris demonstrates the importance of using supplemental oxygen for his own health, but also the dangers it may have on his teammates. Harris’s hypoxic mistake caused Krakauer to panic and he slowly suffocated until he descended and retrieved a fresh tank of oxygen. Although Harris was not aware of his mistake, the lack of oxygen was changing the way he thought and reacted in certain situations, therefore posing a danger to his friends and teammates while in such an intense landscape. Andrew Bisharat, in his article “What’s the Big Deal About Climbing Everest Without Oxygen?” interviews former climbers of Everest and details their experiences while battling the bitter conditions. Bisharat

Have you ever wanted to climb Mount Everest and be able to say you accomplished a task that many others do not even get an opportunity to attempt? Well you could be guided up the mountain by some very experienced people for the small price of only around seventy thousand dollars. Although if I were you I would make sure I am in the right shape and condition to attempt to climb the mountain. In the book Into Thin Air written by Jon Krakauer were Jon Krakauer is the main character and narrator, a few groups of people attempt to scale the mountain and make it back alive. Many people in the groups end up dying because the greed the group leaders and Nepal had, they would let anyone attempt to scale the mountain despite any physical restrictions a person might have and some individuals would attempt to continue on the journey although they might have an injury or sickness

Conveying a human to a different atmosphere inflicts barotrauma which is the inability to equalise pressure within the body cavities. Boyle’s law explains as pressure increases on our bodies the volume of our body cavities decrease and as pressure decreases the volume is increased. A changing pressure between a gas space in our bodies causes physical damage to tissue. Astronauts experience this from the change in pressure between their space suits and the shuttle. However, divers are subjected to greater changes in pressure the deeper beneath sea level resulting in more harmful

While mountain climbing is a dangerous sport, the chances of death have been reduced significantly. Jon Krakauer, author of Into Thin Air, has determined the ratio of deaths caused because of mountaineering has now dropped from 1 death for every 4 attempts to 1:60 (Source one). It is seen that because of the development of items over the years, many of the symptoms that climbers usually experience include: high-altitude cerebral edema and high-altitude pulmonary edema, have been prevented with the use of special steroids. Also, bottled oxygen has been seen on many mountaineers allowing them to breathe easier in

Cardiovascular drift is the increase in heart rate during prolonged aerobic exercise with a steady-state intensity. This change is usually seen around the 10 minute mark in an exercise. Cardiovascular drift is often seen alongside increased core temperature. Cardiovascular drift can also be caused from dehydration. A study done by Jonathan E. Wingo showed that a dehydration level of 4% caused the same amount of increase in heart rate and decrease in stroke volume as seen in a case of hyperthermia .

At higher altitudes, the amount of air pressure is reduced. If there is less air pressure this means there is a lesser amount of oxygen present. With the oxygen levels decreased, you have to breathe faster and deeper to get the amount of oxygen you would normally have at surface level.

In most tissues of the body, ATP production primarily occurs through mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation of reduced intermediates, which are in turn derived from substrates such as glucose and fatty acids. In order to maintain ATP homeostasis, and cellular function, the mitochondria requires a constant supply of fuels and oxygen. In many individuals at altitude, tissue oxygen levels fall and the cell must meet this hypoxic challenge to maintain energetic and limit oxidative stress. Varying on protocols, the body can adapt to the lack of oxygen which can be increasing the mass of red blood cells and haemoglobin or changes in muscle metabolism. Depending very much on the protocols used, the body may adapt to the relative lack of oxygen in one

During decent and while divers are on the bottom the diver is continually absorbing nitrogen into the tissues until the pressure in the tissues is equivalent to the external pressure of the surroundings. This is when a person’s tissues are saturated and cannot absorb any more nitrogen. When the diver ascends slowly the nitrogen

Oxygen is required by the cells to carry out respiration, this provides the energy in the form of adenosine-triphosphate (ATP) which is a molecule required for muscular contraction. As exercise takes place, oxygen is used

As Humans begin to solve more mysteries in the universe and in our solar system, we begin venturing farther into the unknown. We are only a decade or two away from landing the first human on Mars. With a first of a kind mission, comes many challenges. Not only are there great economic and technical challenges that come from such a manned mission, but also, how will the human body react to such a long mission from Earth to Mars and then back again?